Metro Bank, which aims to make banking a “fun retail experience” opens in Holborn, central London today. The bank is Britain’s first new high street lender for more than a century and it has pledged to return to “core banking values”. The bank said it will employ more cashiers than the existing “big four” banks, [...]
Some neighbourhoods close to the Olympic Park development have seen sharp rises in house prices since 2005, when the Capital was awarded the Games. According to research from Lloyds TSB, Homerton and Shoreditch have recorded average property price rises of 69% and 53% respectively, well above the Greater London average of 36%. However, only four [...]
London homebuyers are prepared to pay a considerable premium to be close to a Tube or train station, according to research from Nationwide. A property 500m from the nearest station is likely to cost 7% (typically £20,300) more than a similar home 1,500m distant. Premiums increase as you move closer towards a station: for example, [...]
The average asking price of a UK home has remained stable in July, with growth stalled by a surge of properties for sale. According to FindaProperty.com’s latest House Prices and Affordability Index, a combination of sellers keen to take advantage of recent price growth, and renewed confidence following the Budget, resulted in stock levels rising [...]
From January next year, restrictions on bankers’ bonuses will take effect, the European Parliament has announced today. Under the deal agreed by the EU members last month, cash bonuses will be capped at 30% of the total bonus. 60% of bonuses should be variable and for future payment only, with at least 40% having to [...]
The cost of owning and running a home in Scotland has declined by 4% over the past two years, according to research by Bank of Scotland. Between April 2008 and April 2010, average yearly expenses fell by £388, from £8,949 to £8,562. In real terms (after allowing for retail price inflation), the figure is down [...]
House prices in England and Wales showed an 8.5% annual gain in April, the average value of a home having risen 0.2% on March, according to the Land Registry. The figure reflects the highest annual change since September 2007 and takes the average house price to £165,596. The North East experienced the greatest monthly rise [...]
The latest house price index from Acadametrics shows the value of the average home in England and Wales rising by 0.5% in April, compared with March, to £225,963. The research tracks the twelfth consecutive month-on-month rise, which has given an annual increase of 12.9%. Acadametrics describes the recovery as “significant” but points out that London [...]
The Land Registry has published house price data for March showing a positive annual change of 7.5% and marking the fifth consecutive month of growth. However, the monthly change stood at minus 0.6%, taking the average house price in England and Wales down slightly, to £164,288. The East Midlands was the region with the most [...]
The newly created Consumer Financial Education Body (CFEB) has been launched today and is aimed at enhancing consumers’ financial education and their ability to manage their finances, thereby avoiding debt. The creation of the London-based agency comes at a time when the Government is concerned that a lack of financial knowledge means that consumers are [...]
A report by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), has revealed a degree of optimism for the UK financial services sector, which is expected to record higher growth in the next three months, after stagnating in the last quarter. According to the business group, an improvement will be seen in the next three months after [...]
In February, the value of the average home in England and Wales rose 7% year-on-year, to £164,455, according to new figures from the Land Registry. The increase points towards a “strengthening in the housing market”, although the monthly house price change was negative, at -0.3%. On a regional basis, Wales was the region with the [...]
Metro Bank, which was recently granted a banking licence by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has told Sky News that it plans to make banking a “fun retail experience”. The bank, which is set to become Britain’s first new high street lender for more than a century, is set to open two branches in central [...]
City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has granted a banking licence to Metro Bank – which is set to become Britain’s first new high street lender for more than a century. Metro Bank, which is backed by US billionaire and former Commerce Bank owner Vernon Hill, is planning to open two branches in central [...]
Rightmove has reported that a scarcity of new sellers bumped up asking prices by 3.2% in the four weeks to mid-February, taking the average asking price for a UK home to £229,298. The figure compares with £222,261 in January, which saw a monthly change of 0.4%. The leap set a new record for London at [...]
Around 100 senior employees at Goldman Sachs in London are capping their 2009 pay and bonuses at £1 million each. The move comes as part of the Chancellor’s super tax, which was introduced to claw back some of the bailout funds used to rescue the banking industry. According to the BBC, the tax represents a [...]
Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs has today reported its fourth quarter results with net profits at $4.95 billion (£3.06 billion) compared with a loss of $2.12 billion in the same period a year earlier. For the 2009 year, the bank made a net profit of $13.39 billion, up from $2.32 billion in the previous year. [...]
In an interview with Sky News, HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan has warned of the dangers of the new super tax, introduced by the Government to claw back some of the bailout funds used to rescue the banking industry. The warning comes just a week after London Mayor, Boris Johnson, warned that high-earning bankers are [...]
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said shops in Central London enjoyed their best December since records began in 2002, with sales up 12% on year. The report came just a week after the BRC reported that Britain experienced an annual 4.2% rise in sales during December. Both sets of figures will boost hopes that the [...]
London Mayor, Boris Johnson, has warned that high-earning bankers are leaving the capital because of the super tax which has been introduced by the Government. In the recent Pre-Budget Report (PBR), UK Chancellor Alistair Darling confirmed there would be a one-off 50% tax on bankers’ bonuses paid above £25,000. The Chancellor said the banks, rather [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
About | Privacy | Disclaimer | Resources | XML Feeds | Press Releases | Directory | Contact us
